The Sol Brothers
The Sol Brothers is a new-found chapter of the 27th founding, its founders being a group of 9 genetically-flawed Ultramarines able to feel emotions (and fear only in extreme conditions) similarly to humans and capable of using special abilities thanks to their cult. Chapter history The group forms The 9 Ultramarines (Valerius Solagus, a tactical astartes; Caethos Coracos and Elytius Morrelux, two heavy-weapon marines; Axaros Tarikiel and Graevom Triro, two scouts; Maptus Abein and Numiram Belaris, two assault marines; Haldrick Dralion, an apothecary and Honolius Tros, a techmarine), all stationed in different companies and sectors of Ultramar, came together during a huge chaos invasion on Macragge where every single soldier was called to defend their homeworld. The 9 Ultramarines were sent with their respective squads to defend Sentinel Island, where the enemy was supposed to launch a side attack. However the enemies were much more than predicted, and slaughtered many marines. Individually, the 9 marines started roaming the battlefield from defence point to defence point searching for someone in confusion, since their sergeants were all dead; after a couple of minutes, all 9 found each other and formed a group together, starting to go to the last known location of an allied squad of marines. When they arrived they found only a sergeant, named Arcton Elgistus, wounded and with all of his squad members dead. Together and thanks to the guide of Arcton, they managed to hold the position and to keep the sergeant alive, surviving long enough for the reinforcements to arrive; during this time they all learned from each other that they all got the same genetic flaw; they were happy to discover this, and decided to stick together. They then hopped on board of a Thunderhawk that took them and brought them to the Agilus barracks to rest, re-arm and be sent again into the battle; meanwhile Valerius was momentarily assigned as squad leader for the rest of the battle. They fought togheter and after a few days the invasion was pushed back. The bonding of the brothers in the aftermath of the battle, the squad received praise for their autonomous work on the battlefield but still didn't impress the high command enough to make them go to the frontlines; their flaw was a huge drawback from getting selected to go to any commander or general that needed astartes support, not some "heavy equipped guardsmen", so they remained on Macragge until further orders. As a few days passed, the marines told their stories to each other, and were really happy to finally being able to be themselves with other marines, since the previous sergeants forced them to hide at their best this flaw; suddenly, they received a message telling them that a sergeant accepted to become squad leader and will accompany them. The marines were worried, they didn't want another tyrannical sergeant that despised them for no reason, until they met him: Arcton Elgistus stood smiling before them, greeting his new squad members. The marines were relieved seeing a familiar face, and happily went with him. The sergeant quickly became a fatherly figure to the group, that teached and supported them, always guiding them with a smile in the boring patrol missions in the realm of Ultramar that were dumped on them; until, after a few months of patrols, they received a new mission. Things go south This mission seemed normal at first: scouting a lone planet in the outer rim of Ultramar for any traces of heresy, task they already done a thousand times. They landed on the planet expecting the same old routine, but they found much much worse than expected: a black sky with crimson storms, corpses everywhere, and worst of all, the octagonal heretic sign. They were soon greeted by swarms of chaos cultists and daemons of Slaanesh, but the brothers managed to hold their ground. After a few minutes of fighting, Arcton noticed something: a temple, seamingly intact from the corruption of the ruinous powers, built atop of a hill; a perfect advantage he thought, and it wasn't even that far from where they landed. They started marching while still fending off the chaotic enemies, and almost arrived to the flight of steps that lead to the temple, when a daemon that managed to sneak behind them attacked the sergeant, tearing an arm off before being gunned down, but before the squad could react, another one came and tore off Arcton's hearts, laughing as he was maimed into a red pulp by a furious Numiran that jumped on the daemon. With his last breath, Arcton asked for forgiveness to both the Emperor and his brothers and then crumbled down, dead. Haldrick, in tears like the others, retrieved his gene-seed, giving prayers for his soul. Shocked and without a guide, the only thing left to do was to go where the sergeant wanted: the temple. When they arrived they started climbing the steps, and after a few minutes they stopped to look behind them and remained horrified: a giant army was climbing faster than them, and would reach them in a few minutes. The marines, knowing that was the end, loaded their last magazines and prepared to fight. When the first wave of heretics arrived it was almost completely gunned down by Caethos and Elytius; Maptus and Numiram jumped in front of the heavy gunners to protect them, and started fighting as ferociously as possible; meanwhile Axaros and Graevom climbed even more to have more visual and started sniping any flanking menace; Valerius, Haldrick and Honolius were behind Elytius and Caethos, shooting at any heretic that wasn't killed by their brothers. With this tactic they managed to slay many foes, but the enemies were simply too many: after a while Caethos and Elytius were out of ammunitions and were using their bolt-pistols, same as Valerius and Haldrick; Graevom and Axaros were completely out of ammo, having to rely on their knives; Honolius was using his power axe and his servo-arms; Numiram and Maptus were so tired that they used their jump-packs to go higher and rest while shooting the last bullets of their bolt-pistols. The Sun Surrounded, tired and wounded, the marines felt, for the first time in their astartes lives, a lightning of fear. They screamed at the Emperor for help, but nothing happened; the daemons slashed and ripped, wounding heavily almost every marine, now on the ground and powerless, when a sudden flash of light coming from above them literally burned every single enemy and healed every wound the marines had. Shocked, they looked above only to see an old man, walking down the steps with his arms spread and a strange staff in his right hand; he was bright, almost as a human-sized glowstick; his staff was peculiar, with what seemed to be a glowing sphere levitating on top of it; the old man smiled to the marines, and introduced himself with a bow. His name was Soteiros Ilios, and he was the only priest left of his cult, he explained while climbing the steps with the marines behind him, curious about their saviour. Arrived at the temple, the group was able to admire the last remains of the cult of the Sun: paintings, armours and weapons, statues, etc... all dedicated to the Emperor but with it's unique and colorful twist of the Sun; Soteiros explained that he was no heretic, and instead praised the Emperor like everyone else, if not more: the basic principle of the cult was that the suns of every system are extensions of the Emperor's holy light, and therefore must be praised with him. This was proven true for generations, since there was an entire order of the cult with adepts and warriors that had benefits from it, but with the arrival of more and more zealous inquisitors everyone escaped for the fear of death. Now that the planet was doomed under the ruinous powers, he feared he would've died there, but hearing their pleads for help he found a way to continue to preach his ideology. He bowed once again and thanked the marines; however Valerius rebutted that without his help they wouldn't be alive, so they should be the thankful one. After a few minutes of chat, loud bangs were heard form the outside: chaos space marines... With no way to defend themselves from another assault, Valerius asked Soteiros if he knew a way to escape, but the priest simply smiled and extended his hand, saying that there wasn't any way to escape, but he could give them a way to fight. The warriors of the Sun Hesitantly, Valerius reached out and put his hand on top of Soteiros: the whole temple shined brightly, but Valerius could only see the priest in front of him, since all around him was pure darkness; he looked around, only to find Him: the Emperor of Mankind in all of his shining beauty. He was still on the golden throne, but was cladded in his golden armour and looked... alive, and was smiling. The old man said that He could not hear nor see them, but He could see their lights, and for generations the lights of the acolytes helped him ease his pain. As time passed, He watched as one by one all the lights of his followers died, until only Soteiros remained. But now Valerius was there, another light in the darkness. The priest asked him to take a huge burden: to become the Champion of the Sun and to fight in the name of both of them. Valerius, convinced by the presence of the Emperor, accepted: a huge surge of power flowed through him, and lifted him in the air; light shined from all his body, colouring his helmet's lenses of a golden yellow; a sword, made of pure solid light, started to appear in his right hand: a replica of the emperor's sword, with the right size for a marine to be wielded. When he landed, a furious rage started boiling in him. He literally smashed down the huge door of the temple, squashing every heretic that was behind it and then started his slaughter: he slashed, burned and destroyed every single heretic or chaos spawn that was sent to claim their heads, stopping only when there was nothing left. After the fight, he told his friends what happened and encouraged them to become warriors of the sun; everyone accepted and one by one saw the same thing Valerius did, but of course didn't became Champions since there could be only one at a time. Explanations After accepting the oath, the brothers gained a faint glow like Soteiros, but was not visible with their armour on. They all felt refreshed and ready to fight, but everyone still had all the armour in a terrible state and were out of ammunitions, so they decided to get out of that planet and call an exterminatus; consulting various maps, they went to a Vox station to contact the fleet above. on the way there they found little to no resistance, almost as if their light deterred the daemons from attacking. Arrived at the station, they contacted the fleet, and the response was lightning fast: three thunderhawks landed after mere minutes unloading marines in defensive formations as the group entered in one of said vehicles. On board of the craft that was leaving orbit, they agreed with the other Ultramarines that the planet was beyond salvation and needed to be exterminated. After a few minutes of calming silence, the thunderhawk docked with the flagship of the scouting flotilla, a Dauntless-class battlecruiser, and reported to the leader of the expedition: as the brothers expected, the planet was found to be covered in a veil that masked the corruption ongoing on the surface, hence giving the perfect situation for a sneak-attack by the forces of chaos Category:Imperium Category:Space Marine Chapters Category:Space Marines Category:Ultima Founding Category:Ultramarines Successors